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INTERVIEW Director Kwon Han-sl on why AI filmmaking is new genre, not gimmick
Kwon Han-sl, founder and CEO of Studio Freewillusion, speaks during a joint media interview at the Hilton Gyeongju hotel, where he participated in the APEC 2025 High-Level Dialogue on Cultural and Creative Industries, Wednesday. Courtesy of Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism
By Pyo Kyung-min
GYEONGJU, North Gyeongsang Province — Artificial intelligence (AI) is not just a new tool for filmmakers, but the next great cinematic shift, says director Kwon Han-sl.
"From black-and-white to color, from theaters to streaming — our medium has always evolved with technology," he said during a media interview Wednesday. "AI filmmaking is the next turning point. If you embrace it, you become a pioneer. If you don't, you fall behind."
Kwon speaks about AI with keenness and optimism. For him, AI is not simply another tool in the filmmaker's kit, but a technological inflection point on par with the invention of the camera or the arrival of streaming platforms.
Kwon is the founder and CEO of Studio Freewillusion, launched in June 2023 as Korea's first AI video tech studio. Within its first year, the company made international waves when its debut project, "One More Pumpkin," earned the Grand Prize at the inaugural Dubai International AI Film Festival in March 2024.
Most recently, Kwon visited Gyeongju to deliver a keynote at the APEC 2025 High-Level Dialogue on Cultural and Creative Industries, recognized for his innovative approach to AI and film.
In conversation, Kwon was careful to emphasize that AI filmmaking is not a matter of just pushing a button. While algorithms can generate images and animation from text prompts, he said the outcome heavily depends on creative direction.
The official poster for Studio Freewillusion's inaugural artificial intelligence-generated film, "One More Pumpkin" / Courtesy of Studio Freewillusion
"AI doesn't just spit out a movie on its own," Kwon said.
"It takes hundreds of prompt refinements — from camera angles, lighting and mood — to get the result you want. The creator still remains the director and AI is just the tool that implements that vision."
The efficiency gains, he added, are enormous.
"Compared to traditional filming or CGI (computer-generated imagery), the savings in time and cost are revolutionary. That's why the film industry is paying so much attention."
Kwon believes Korea is particularly well positioned to take advantage of the shift. Korean content has already proven its global appeal and the AI content market is still so new that no single country holds a lead.
At the same time, challenges remain in depicting culture accurately. For example, when asked to generate traditional Korean houses, AI models sometimes default to Chinese or Japanese styles because data clusters blur across neighboring cultures.
"That's not because Korean data is missing, but because AI clusters East Asian categories together," Kwon explained, adding that Freewillusion is now working on technology that can "distinguish these representations more precisely," supported by government research and development funds for cultural authenticity.
For Kwon, the goal is not only realism. He acknowledges that AI can already produce scenes nearly indistinguishable from live-action and expects the technology to reach that point across the board within two years.
Yet he argues that its real strength lies elsewhere.
"What matters isn't just making something look real. AI has its own aesthetics —concept mixing, new forms of expression. It's not just a replacement for live-action. It's becoming a genre of its own."
The size of the market is still difficult to measure, but Freewillusion has already helped set important precedents. Two fully AI films have been registered as copyrighted works, establishing that while raw AI-generated clips may not be protected, a film shaped by human creativity can be.
He also disputed the idea that AI filmmaking inevitably threatens jobs.
"If 20 people used to make one piece of content and now 10 people can make it through AI, that doesn't mean 10 people suddenly become unemployed. It means you can create two pieces of content. Productivity and output will grow."
Kwon Han-sl, founder and CEO of Studio Freewillusion, speaks during a joint media interview at the Hilton Gyeongju hotel, where the APEC 2025 High-Level Dialogue on Cultural and Creative Industries took place, Wednesday. Courtesy of Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism
The director sees both opportunity and responsibility in leading the way. He believes Korea's industry can help shape global standards as new regulations begin to take effect next year.
Kwon is now looking beyond Korea. His studio operates a domestic network and community platform archiving AI films produced in Korea, but he says there is little reason to limit ambitions.
"There aren't many AI production studios worldwide that function like ours," he noted, adding that Freewillusion plans to establish a U.S. branch by late 2025 or early 2026.